Worldwide Faith News Remembers George C. Conklin Jr.

August 6, 2025 | Cam Howard
Updated August 26, 2025 with Memorial Service information

George Conklin

RCC photo

George C. Conklin Jr. at the Religion Communicators Council convention in 2011.

George Clark Conklin Jr., a long-time religion communicator and photojournalist, died at age 93 on July 24, 2025, in Berkeley, California. He served as project director for Worldwide Faith News (WFN) for over 30 years.

Self-described on his LinkedIn page as "a social change agent in broadcasting" and "rabble-rouser in civil rights in broadcasting," Conklin was active with many church and ecumenical communication organizations.

Over the course of his career, Conklin served as:

  • Director of Radio-Television and Print for the Greater Hartford Council of Churches
  • Associate Director for the Northern California Council of Churches
  • Associate Professor of Media and Culture Studies at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California
  • Project Director for Worldwide Faith News

He was a founding member of the North American Broadcast Section of the World Association for Christian Communication (NABS-WACC) and was a “Gold Star” member, having attended every annual NABS conference for over 30 years. He provided leadership and creative guidance to students and experienced communicators who came together at the ecumenical conventions for inspiration, learning, and fellowship. He also served as a member of WACC-North America's Executive Committee.

Conklin’s vision, together with J. Martin Bailey, former Associate General Secretary for Communication at the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCC), David Pomeroy, former Director of Media Resources at NCCC, and others, led to the development of Worldwide Faith News (WFN). WFN aggregates news and articles from the news offices of national and world faith groups. It was a groundbreaking project when it went online in 1995.

Conklin, Bailey, and Pomeroy worked with the NCCC Communication Commission on the project and with Odessa Elliott and the Trinity Grants Foundation to secure start-up funding for WFN.

Conklin served as WFN’s project director from its inception and shepherded the project through several changes in technology over the years. Designed to be a resource for journalists, academics, religious leaders, clergy, and lay people, the WFN archival collection indexes more than 45,000 documents. Today, WFN uses RSS to aggregate news from faith groups who make their news releases available in that format.

Recently honored as a Life Member of the Religion Communicators Council (RCC), a national interfaith association, Conklin served as the official photographer for RCC’s annual meetings and the once-a-decade international Religion Communication Congress gatherings.

Shirley Struchen, former executive director of the Religion Communicators Council, and former member of the NCCC Communication Commission, the WACC North America Executive Committee, and the WACC Board, wrote “George has touched thousands of peoples lives in a positive way and I for one am so thankful he was in my life.”

Martin Luther King speaking to a large crowd, standing at a podium, with a beam of light shining down on him.

Photo by George Conklin

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at an interfaith rally at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on May 30, 1964.

One of his most well-known photographs is of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in May 1964, when Conklin, an ordained United Church of Christ minister, was communications director for the Northern California Council of Churches.

Describing the occasion of the photo, Conklin said, “The long evening wore on, the humidity in the vast hall increased, and I could see the beam appearing. I got up and took the last frames of a 36-frame roll.”

Conklin received a DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award from the Religion Communicators Council for the photo in 2013. The award recognized the photo’s installation, engraved on a stone, at San Francisco’s McLaren Park, overlooking the Cow Palace.

“I have expressed the ideas of action for justice and social change through my avocation of photography,” Conklin told Jay Burns at Bates College about the award for his photo.

David Vásquez-Levy, president of Pacific School of Religion (PSR), says in PSR’s article remembering Conklin, “George Conklin helped PSR understand the importance of bearing witness – through story, through image, and through courageous curiosity. His life invites us to remember not just what we have seen, but how we choose to see.”

Conklin earned his Master of Divinity degree in Theology and Scripture Communication from Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut and his bachelor's degree in Sociology and Religion from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he participated in the start-up of the campus radio station, originally known as WVBC.

A memorial service will be held November 8, 2025 at 2 p.m. at his home church, College Heights Church United Church of Christ, 1150 W. Hillsdale Blvd., San Mateo, California. A Zoom link will be provided on the College Heights Church website for those unable to attend in person.

In lieu of flowers, donations are being accepted to help cover the cost of the memorial. Donations received above that cost will be divided equally between Conklin's favorite communities; College Heights Church, Pacific School of Religion, and Broadview Community Church.

Additional sources of information: